December 15 - Great Divide Brewing Yeti Imperial Stout

Day 15! Only 10 more days until Christmas, and 11 more days until Boxing Day.. bah humbug. Working in retail, this time of year is depressing.. people are moodier and snap at you if you don't have what they're looking for.. at the last minute, so a cold beer after work helps one calm the nerves as you're crying the pain away. Tonight's beer is Yeti Imperial Stout by the folks over at Great Divide Brewery out of Denver. By March/April I tend to get sick of stouts & porters as I find them to mainly be drunk by yours truly between November and March, but when the weather is cold, something roasty always helps!

Appearance: Yeti pours a very dark coffee bean brown, yet not quite black. Thick, creamy and a very vibrant burnt caramel/orange head that diminishes quite rapidly.

Aroma: Smells like what most Imperial Stouts smell like to me: coffee, chocolate, roasty, some caramel, even more coffee and a bit bitter.

Taste: Quite a bitter stout. First off, the coffee, it's a nice and dark bitter espresso bean flavour, leaves a bitter aftertaste that lingers on the palate for quite a while. Dark chocolate, lots of dark chocolate, some molasses. Much more of a bitter Imperial Stout than sweet, but seeing it's -3C out (ONLY?! wow, it's spring!!) this is a great before bed beer. Oh and there's a weird funkiness that I can only describe as likely the water, a bit salty.

Overall Thoughts: Incredibly bittersweet like dark chocolate covered espresso beans. Leaves an incredibly lingering bitterness on the palate. I would like it a bit creamier but hey.. whatevs! It's 9.5% ABV which is a shocker, there is no trace of booziness in it making me think it would be that high %. Long after the beer is finished, it almost tastes like I had a bunch of dark chocolate covered espresso beans.. does this mean I'll have trouble sleeping ce soir?